David Rockefeller, billionaire philanthropist, talks about Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture on Sept. 29, 2008, after donating $25 million to the nonprofit farm in Pocantico Hills created as a memorial to his late wife, Peggy.
Carucha L. Meuse/lohud

Video: Rockefeller State Park Preserve is celebrating its 20th anniversary

Kykuit at 100

Rockefeller died in his sleep, a spokesman said.

David Rockefeller greets the crowd at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville in 2015 at a ceremony to honor him for donating $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.(Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

NEW YORK — David Rockefeller, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist who was the last in his generation of one of the country’s most famously philanthropic families, died Monday. He was 101.

Rockefeller died in his sleep at his home, Hudson Pines, in Pocantico Hills, according to his spokesman, Fraser P. Seitel.

He was the youngest of six children born to John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. With the passing of his siblings, he became the guardian of his family’s fortune and head of a sprawling network of family interests, both business and philanthropic, that ranged from environmental conservation to the arts.

In 2015, he gave a $4 million gift to establish an endowment for the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Westchester County and announced plans to add another 500 acres of Rockefeller family property to the Mount Pleasant park, on top of more than 1,400 acres in central Westchester that the Rockefellers had donated since the park's inception in 1983.

Rockefeller, his daughter Peggy Dulany and associate James Ford also created the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills in 2004 as a memorial to his late wife, Peggy.

The trustees and staff of Historic Hudson Valley, founded in 1951 by Rockefeller's father, John. D. Rockefeller, Jr., noted in a statement: "He will be remembered for all that he did in banking and around the world, but we knew him as a neighbor and the last of his generation in our founding family — the youngest and last surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.

"His legacy in Westchester includes the majestic windows at the Union Church of Pocantico Hills. It was David's late wife Peggy who suggested Marc Chagall as the artist to complement Matisse in designing stained glass for the church."

David Rockefeller served as trustee of the organization from 1981 to 1997 and often took time to visit the sites. He was the first visitor to last October's Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, which for years he motored through in his golf cart.

Aspects of the Rockefeller brothers’ upbringing became famous, including the 25-cent allowance, portions of which had to be set aside for charity and savings, and the inculcation that wealth brings great responsibility.

Two of his brothers held elected office: Nelson Rockefeller served as the governor of New York, hungered for the White House and briefly served as vice president. Winthrop Rockefeller was a governor of Arkansas.

David Rockefeller, however, wielded power and influence without ever seeking public office. Among his many accomplishments were spurring the project that led to the World Trade Center.

And unlike his other brothers, John D. III and Laurance, who shied from the spotlight and were known for philanthropy, David Rockefeller embraced business and traveled and spoke widely as a champion of enlightened capitalism.

“American capitalism has brought more benefits to more people than any other system in any part of the world at any time in history,” he said. “The problem is to see that the system is run as efficiently and as honestly as it can be.”

Rockefeller graduated from Harvard in 1936 and received a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1940. He served in the Army during World War II, then began climbing the ranks of management at Chase Bank. That bank merged with The Manhattan Company in 1955.

He was named Chase Manhattan’s president in 1961 and chairman and chief executive officer eight years later. He retired in 1981 at age 65 after a 35-year career.

The bank later became what is known as JPMorgan Chase, one of the world's largest financial institutions.

“David Rockefeller led an extraordinary life — making an indelible, positive mark on our world as a leader in philanthropy, the arts, business and global affairs," JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon said in a statement.

From left, President Gerald Ford, unidentified person, Betty Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in front of Union Church of Pocantico Hills in November 1976, after Ford had lost the election to Jimmy Carter. With Rockefeller is Margaretta "Happy" Rockefeller (back of head showing). The photo was taken by Robert Pincus of Cross River, a lawyer and arbitrator and amateur photographer who was in the crowd that day.
Robert Pincus

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In his role of business statesman, Rockefeller preached capitalism at home and favored assisting economies abroad on grounds that bringing prosperity to the Third World would create customers for American products.

He parted company with some of his fellow capitalists on income taxes, calling it unseemly to earn $1 million and then find ways to avoid paying taxes on it. He didn’t say how much he paid in taxes and never spoke publicly about his personal worth. In 2015, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $3 billion.

As one of the Rockefeller grandchildren, David belonged to the last generation in which the inherited family billions were concentrated in a few hands. The next generation, known as “the cousins,” has more people.

Banker and philanthro­pist David Rockefeller is pictured in 2008.(Photo: Carucha L. Meuse)

Rockefeller was estimated to have met more than 200 rulers in more than 100 countries during his lifetime, and often was treated as if he were a visiting head of state.

Under Rockefeller, Chase was the first U.S. bank to open offices in the Soviet Union and China and, in 1974, the first to open an office in Egypt after the Suez crisis of 1956.

In his early travels to South Africa, Rockefeller arranged clandestine meetings with several underground black leaders. “I find it terribly important to get overall impressions beyond those I get from businessmen,” he said.

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David Rockefeller chats with his niece Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

David Rockefeller greets the crowd at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

David Rockefeller is pictured with from left, his nieces Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky and Clare Pierson and NYS Parks commissioner Rose Harvey, at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

NYS Parks commissioner Rose Harvey greets the attendees at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

David Rockefeller walks toward the Art Gallery at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

Susan Antenen, the preserve manager greets the attendees at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

NYS Parks commissioner Rose Harvey greets the attendees at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

David Rockefeller greets the crowd at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky talks about her uncle David Rockefeller at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

Clare Pierson talks about her uncle David Rockefeller at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, March 26, 2015. David Rockefeller has donated $4 million to establish an operating endowment supporting the park.
Mark Vergari/The Journal News

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But Rockefeller took a lot of heat for his bank’s substantial dealings with South Africa’s white separatist regime and for helping the deposed, terminally ill Shah of Iran come to New York for medical treatment in 1979, the move that triggered the 13-month U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Rockefeller maintained the family’s patronage of the arts, including its long-standing relationship with New York’s Museum of Modern Art, of which his mother had been a fervent patron. His private art collection was once valued at $500 million.

The Rockefeller estate overlooking the Hudson River north of New York City is the repository of four generations of family history, including Nelson’s art and sculpture collection.

One of the major efforts of Rockefeller’s later years was directed at restoring family influence in the landmark Rockefeller Center, most of which had been sold in the 1980s to Japanese investors. He eventually organized an investor group to buy back 45 percent of the property.

Rockefeller is credited with giving away some $2 billion to various causes, including biomedical research, the arts and New York City's urban revitalization efforts. His philanthropy and other activities earned him a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1998.

To mark his 100th birthday in 2015, Rockefeller donated 1,000 acres of land next to a national park to the state of Maine.

Rockefeller and his wife, the former Margaret McGrath, married in 1940 and had six children — David Jr., Richard, Abby, Neva, Margaret and Eileen. His wife, an active conservationist, died in 1996. Richard, a doctor, was killed in when the plane he was piloting crashed in July 2014 near the Westchester County Airport in Purchase.

The Associated Press and USA Today contributed information for this report.